A Trip of a Lifetime

Bill Newland was recently honored with a trip to visit the World War II Memorial

James L. Davis

Some of Bill Newland’s memories are vivid, more vivid than he would like them to be of a time and a place and a world that was at war.

“I’ve never had a nightmare, but I remember every second. The things I want to forget I can’t and the things I want to remember I can’t. Nobody will ever know how many nights I stayed up thinking about it. I never had nightmares, but I remember every cotton picking thing,” Newland said of his experiences in World War II.

But of the experiences associated with World War II, one memory he will hold onto fondly is his visit in September with his wife, Adelia, to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. For him it was a cherished memory, a once in a lifetime event.

Newland and his wife accompanied 132 other World War II veterans from the western states to the memorial as honored guests of a grateful nation paying tribute to a generation that is now appropriately considered the greatest of all.

For the Newland’s the trip started with a trip to Hill AFB, where they were honored with other veterans before being flown to Washington for a tour of a monument Newland had never seen before and hadn’t even been aware the country was building until it was already built.

“It was a trip of a lifetime,” Newland said, hand on his cane as he reflects on his trip with fellow veterans, trips that are becoming fewer and fewer as the years go by. For years he had gone to reunions with his old friends of his military days, but he said the last reunion planned was going to be cancelled because there was only 19 of them left.

“They said we had to have 25 of us to make the reunion worthwhile,” Newland said.
Newland served in the Marines during World War II and fought on Iwo Jima and was among the Marines that were to hit the mainland of Japan when the war ended.

“We were being issued our winter clothing when the war ended. If we had gone, none of us would have been back. They were prepared for us, and I mean prepared,” Newland said.
Instead, the war ended and on Dec. 3, 1945 Newland was discharged from the military “at the ripe old age of 20,” he said with a smile.

After his military service Newland went on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to Czechoslovakia when the Cold War with the Soviet Union was growing ever colder.

“We had to have three copies of all of our talks, one for the communist party, one for our mission president and one for ourselves. We were automatically considered spies because we were ex military,” Newland said.

After his mission Newland married Adelia and they have been married for 55 years. They had three children, one of whom died as an infant. They have 10 grandchildren and 23 great grandchildren. The two came to Green River in 1989.

Of his trip to see the World War II Memorial, Newland said he has many fond memories and knows that his first trip to the memorial may very well be his last.

“I’m not a spring chick anymore and neither is my sweetheart,” he said.

Author pays visit to Green River

Annalee Thayn

Brad Dimock author of “The Very Hard Way ” came to Green River, on Oct. 29 to discuss his new book about Bert Loper. He is of interest to our community because he was an early river runner and spent his last years living in Green River.

Loper was born to an uneducated mother, America Mettler, who married at 16 to Jehail Loper, age 37. The unhappy marriage ended within six years. He was always told that his father had died. His Mom died soon after from the family curse, tuberculosis. A stern grandmother raised him while his older brother Jack, his only sibling, was sent to live with America’s sister and her husband.

When his grandmother died, Loper was still a boy. He was shuttled to several relatives. He would sometimes see his brother Jack, and he discovered that he fared better than Jack, Loper said “…While Grand Ma never missed a chance to whip, that old inhuman Uncle (Allen Johnson) would not whip but he would beat, and there must be so much in the raising for it seemed that all the tenderness was beat out of him…”

Near his grandmother’s home in Missouri, was a creek that Loper escaped to. Even if he knew he would get a whipping, he couldn’t stay away from this refuge where he explored and swam. He was developing an early interest in the outdoors and rivers.

Loper enlisted for the Spanish American War on May 4, 1898. The training camps were soon overcrowded and sanitary conditions were terrible. The main enemy became sickness. Yellow fever and typhoid were soon rampant. To keep disease from spreading, the men would be sent home on furlough to recuperate. At the end of the Cuban problem, Loper was mustered out of the Army on Oct. 24, 1898. Of the 164 hat he served, he was sick 29 days, and on furlough 32.

After a hard childhood and the army experience, Loper traveled through the West as a ranch hand, ditch digger, mule skinner, brick maker, miner, and river explorer.

Loper met his wife, Rachel Jamieson, when she emigrated to Torrey, Utah from Scotland, to join other members of the Mormon faith. They met at a community dance, and had a four-month courtship before getting married. Rachel was 24, Loper was nearly 47. They immediately went to Colorado to work placer claims. Four months later Loper was running the Upper Colorado River with Ellsworth Kolb. Rachel would be left on and off her entire life, but they seemed to have a happy marriage.

Loper’s first boat trip was a calm water float down the San Juan River in 1893. In 1894 he had his first rough water trip. Either way he was hooked for life, and called the river his mistress.

In his 80th year, Loper and a few friends planned to run the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The night before the trip, around a campfire, he told his friends that four doctors had advised him not to take this trip with rapids because of his heart, but he had to go. Rowing his own boat because he wouldn’t accept help, he apparently had a heart attack. His boat capsized, and he went down. Twenty-five years later a hiker found bones, and though they couldn’t be positively identified, they were believed to be Bert Loper’s.

Join the book club

Annalee Thayn

Earlier this year I joined the Book Club held at the Community Center in Green River. Reading books is one of my favorite hobbies. As a young adult I often read the same books as my Mom, and I thought one of the best parts was the discussion afterwards to see if we had the same reactions to the character’s choices and actions.

The Book Club is held the first Monday of every month, and is sponsored by the Utah Humanities Council. Every one who loves to read is welcome. Spearheading the Book Club are Mary Wilmarth and Joni Pace. The Council’s book list is made up of books that stimulate conversation, and deal with an issue that pertains to the world today or in the past. At the end of the discussion, Mary asks us additional questions about the book. She fills out a survey that goes back to Salt Lake with the old books, and we have a new book to look forward to reading.

We have read biographies, autobiographies, all types of non-fiction and fiction. A book about a newspaper food critic was filled with recipes from people that influenced her love of food. A book about a black woman’s struggle to become a doctor in the 1930’s was revealing. The variety of books available from the Council is interesting, and has expanded my knowledge and understanding.
Currently we are reading a book about Abraham Lincoln. It’s pretty in depth about his life. My Mom, a Civil War buff, loves it. I think there are too many battles and generals.

One of the benefits of being part of the Book Club in Green River is that while we are discussing the book, we are also served dinner. Does life get much better a good book and great food?

Finding their Future
Students learn of job possibilities in the energy field

James L. Davis

The faculty of Green River High School were brave enough to climb on buses with 103 teenage students on Oct. 18 to go to Price for an Energy Job Opportunities field trip.

Coordinated by the College of Eastern Utah’s Western Energy Training Center, the field trip took the students to Joy Manufacturing, the Savage Services Coal Terminal to the WETC facilities where they had the chance to speak with presenters on job opportunities and lastly to the Carbon Power Plant.

WETC’s Robert Litster, director of training and development, coordinated the trip for the school. Green River’s community council decided to conduct the field trip as a way of helping students realize the world of possibilities open to them, according to Jackie Nelson.

“We’ve found that our kids were not opening up to the possibilities in the outside world,” she said.

The realization to teachers came after the 6th grade students of Green River were asked what they wanted to do when they grew up and nearly half of the students said they wanted to be cashiers.

“They aren’t seeing the big picture of what is available to them,” Nelson said. “Some just don’t know anything else. We’re getting generations of people that this is all that they know.”
For 9th grade student Jason Johnson, the field trip helped him realize that his plans will take him out of Green River.

“I want to work in home construction, so I’m going to have to leave Green River,” he said.
Nelson said she was pleased with the response of the students to the field trip. “The kids have been very attentive and asked a lot of good questions. These are great kids and they just need to see that they have opportunities.”

With an increased need for employees in the energy industry and a reduced number of employees applying for energy trades, the possibilities for students who wish to pursue a career in the energy fields are limitless.

Green River High School would like to have school-wide field trips such as this one every quarter to expose students to job and future education opportunities in the area.